vii, 378 pages : 26 cm

This is a crucial guide for newcomers to video game studies and experienced game scholars alike. This edition of the pioneering text provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of game studies, and highlights changes in the gaming industry, advances in video game scholarship, and recent trends in game design and development - including mobile, casual, educational, and indie gaming

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction: About the Reader; Structure of the Book; The Larger Questions -- 1. Studying Video Games. Who Studies Video Games?; How Do You Study Video Games?; Types of Analysis; Schools of Thought? -- 2. The Game Industry. The Size of the Game Industry; The Structure of the Big Game Industry; The Development Process; Roles in Game Development -- 3. What Is a Game? General Models for Understanding Games; The Issue of Genre -- 4. History. A Brief Pre-history of Video Games; Does History Matter?; A History of Video Games; The 1970s; The 1980s; The 1990s; The 2000s; The 2010s and Beyond; Perspectives

5. Video Game Aesthetics. Rules; Geography and Representation; Number of Players; Games without Boundaries -- 6. Video Games in Culture; The Cultural Position of Video Games; Players -- 7. Narrative; Storytelling; Reception -- The Player's Experience of a Story; A Brief History of Literary Theory and Video Games -- 8. Serious Games -- When Entertainment Is Not Enough. Traditional Games for Serious Purposes; Categorizing Educational Computer Games; The Rationale Behind Edutainment; The Instructional Approach to Edutainment

The Modern Approach to the Educational Use of Computer Games; The Educational Effectiveness of Video Games; Political Games and Newsgames; Advertainment; Gamification -- Plug and Play Games for Real?; Games-for-change -- Revolutionaries Rise; Final Remarks -- 9. Video Games and Risks. Two Research Perspectives; The Active Media Perspective; The Active User Perspective; Other Questions; Final Remarks -- Video Game Timeline; Glossary; Games Cited

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